giving a presentation about horses to non-horse people...?

The easiest way to do a presentation to those unfamiliar with horses is to do it from their view point.

How about "Horses With Jobs"?

Race Horses, Police Horses, Search and Rescue Horses, Show Horses, Draft or light carriage horses and even lesson/rental horses.

You can cover a lot of different topics! Start out with the prehistory of the horse, (how they started out dog size in North America but disappeared until brought back by the Spanish). Give a little rundown on how important they were to creating civilizations around the world in warfare, farming ,travel,even medicine. Tell a story about famous horses such as Bucephales. Most kids today just think "cowboy" when you mention a horse. They have no idea how dependent we were upon them. Then go into the modern age and how we use the horse today,sports and leisure mostly in America. Tell them why horses react the way they do,(prey animal instincts and vision) and how horses have different personalities which make them suitable for different jobs. I would touch lightly on feed, care and shoeing. Stress what's important without too much detail. You can do a little how and why on riding, how a bit works, why you keep your heels down.And give them question and answer time. That's where it gets fun! Bring a few props like a saddle, pictures and stuff they can handle and guess at (bit, hoof pic,curry,wormer)

I think allot of non horse people don't fully understand what horse riding takes as a sport and as a way of life. If you made a presentation on this and made it really passionate. It might really inspire some people.

If you look on Youtube there are some really great videos that people have made. Type in what it takes, horseriding. Or something.

You could talk about the diffrent sports. Showjumping. Dressage. Cross Country. Racing. Barrel Racing. Showing.

There Are So Many.

Also it would be good to show what kind of care is needed around horses.

Like stable work. Mucking out. The importance of feed ect.

Aslong as you keep it intresting :)

Good luck. Hope it goes well. :)

xxx

I think this is a really good video... Its not made by me i just saw it

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-_ib5t27TSQ&feature=...

Here's what I'd do:

General Knowledge

- Different coat colors

-Breeds

- difference between horses and ponies

Basic Horse Care:

Grooming - all the brushes

Feeding - what horses eat

Safety around horses - don't stand behind the horse, wear a helmet etc etc.

Equipment:

Saddle - maybe show them pictures of an english + a western saddle

Bridle - show them pictures of a headstall + an english bridle - explain basic function

Halter - mention the difference between halter and bridle

Saddle pad - all you really need to do is show a picture and say that it goes under the saddle

Lead rope - This could be lumped in with halter

Horse sports

Describe english and western, this can go before tack maybe, or with it ??

maybe go into more detail i.e. jumping etc

maybe mention race horses

hope i helped, good luck!

Depends on your goal - how old are you, what is the purpose of the presentation? share this with us to help you build something useful. then we can come back and share more ideas.

You see- to a non-horse person, talking about horse nature could be very interesting, depending on the age range. talking about different breeds and colors could take a long time but be interesting too.

What is the time frame you must cover? 15 minutes, 5 minutes, a half hour?

I think to young children who are unfamiliar with horses, perhaps some facts about famous horses might be fun and interesting. Or what about "Did you know" type of things - what are some really interesting things you know about horses? Also, what's your age and experience level?

Oh what a fantastic topic!

It all depends though on what you want to focus on.

I think 'horse behaviour' is one of the most important areas to cover. If you understand how horses think and act, then I believe that is the foundation for being able to be around horses.

Wikipedia has some great general information about the horse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse

You could take sections of that website and present it.

Good Luck - sounds like fun!

When I gave these to kids one thing that made them laugh was I asked them do they brush there teeth twice a day and floss? They said yes, or no but either way I would say good or well if you don't this is what they will look like if you don't and open the horses mouth to show them the teeth, they would all say EEEEWWWWW and I'm gonna brush from know on for sure:) This is one way to keep them interested, of course if you can't get a real horse print some pics off line to show them:) Also ask them is a horse can burp!!! They can't have fun with it, and in between through in other information, what age children are they? One other thing is we used Belgians for show, and show them just how BIG the hoofs were, and much bigger than there own heads, you can print off a accurate size and show them.Best of luck and just have fun.

WOWOWOWOWOW Thumbs down for helping kids have fun with this!!!!!! Hum Okay then....lol

Depending on the age group, I would stick to very basic topics like colors of horses, basic horse breed (Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, Arabians, etc.), some basic horse anatomy, and horse care. This sounds like a fun presentation!

-Food/water (trivia, like how many gallons they drink per day and all they eat... maybe bring in some grain. I teach a summer riding camp for children and when I talk about grain, I give them some and tell them to taste it if they want to. It's always fun watching their faces when they realize it tastes like cardboard. Then explain that grain is like cookies or brownies for horses.).

-The difference between western and English

-Basic bits: Tom's Thumb, snaffle, curb

-Breeds and what events those breeds are typically used for (like warmbloods are typically used for dressage and jumping, etc.)

-Colors (lchestnut/sorrel, palomino, roan, grulla, bay, etc.)

-Basic equine body parts (barrel, poll, dock, hock, hoof, etc.)

-Shoeing a horse. Talk about how not all horses wear shoes, how some horses only have front shoes, the (basic) shoeing process, explain what a farrier is...

Get creative, have fun. If they're younger kids, do lots of interactive things. When I do summer camps, we have a giant stuffed horse and a ton of different anatomy parts on cards with Velcro on the back. We have the kids stick the body parts on the stuffed horse and then correct their answers. You could do this with a poster or individual sheets of paper with a horse on them, as well.

- The foods they eat (include snacks!)

- The things horses wear (dont forget that winter coat, they get cold too!)

- Vet. Horses get check ups too!

- Sizes

- Jobs. Ex: Police horses, cattle horses, carriage horses, etc.

- Stalls/Pastures

- Cleaning (how to and why its important)

Just make sure it's kid friendly and they can find ways to relate a horse to something they may understand better like people or dogs.